Kaithal, October 12
Hundreds of BSNL telephones remain non-functional due to the damage caused to underground telephone cables while digging of roads by the state PWD B&R, laying of water supply and sewer lines by the Public Health Department and installation of electric poles by the UHBVN at a number of places in the town.

The paralysed telecom network recently made the life of customers miserable and they had to face a lot of difficulties. While the customers trained their guns on the BSNL authorities, the BSNL held the state government departments responsible for damaging underground telephone cables.

At one time or the other, hundreds of connections in different localities remain dead for weeks, but the BSNL could do little to prevent this. The telecom department, too, suffers huge loss due to this reason.

However, the department has failed to evolve any strategy to safeguard its lines from getting damaged. Not only the BSNL but also private telecom companies, too, have laid underground cables without any protective cover and whenever there is digging in any part of the town, the cables get damaged and telecom services remain disturbed for weeks.

Ram Pal, divisional engineer telecom (DET), said government officials never bothered to inform the Telecom Department before digging the roads, which aggravated the problem.

It is a common complaint of customers that defects in their telephones are not rectified expeditiously despite repeated complaints. Cellphone subscribers complain that due to the overburdened system they cannot call their desired numbers and they have to make repeated attempts to get the connectivity. At times, their calls get disconnected abruptly. All this causes inconvenience and adds to call costs of the customers.

Ram said the services of engineers were sought to solve this problem. A number of customers recently alleged that complaints registered at help line number 198 were not attended quickly. Some customers pointed out that they had to seek the intervention of senior officers to get the defects rectified.

Principal of a local school said the landline telephone of his school had been out of order for the past couple of months. Repeated complaints made personally to the department officers and at help line number 198, the department failed to rectify the defect in the telephone. “They rather asked us to get a WLL connection,” he said, adding the arrangement also did not work and they had to surrender this connection too. The DET said the telephone cables had been damaged by the department concerned while laying water supply lines. He said the lines were damaged beyond repair on the Khurana Road, and now new cables had to be laid.

Another customer of the Ambala Road here complained that he could not use his phone due to unwanted noise. He had lodged several complaints with subdivisional engineer (SDE) but to no avail.

Panipat, October 12
Governor Jagannath Pahadia honoured seven outstanding girl hockey players of the Shahabad Hockey Academy, their coach and three sisters for excelling in kick boxing at an impressive ceremony organised by Mid-town Rotary at SD. Vidya Mandir here.

Each player was given Rs 51,000 in cash, a certificate and a memento in recognition of their achievements at the national and international levels.

It is pertinent to mention here that hockey players of the Shahabad Hockey Academy were part of the Indian team which recently qualified for the Championships Trophy in the competitions held in South Korea.

The Governor said the recent performances by the state players at the international level had proved it beyond doubt that the state was full of sporting talent which needed to be groomed further. He exhorted the youngsters to show interest in sports other than cricket.

Congratulating the hockey players, he said that they players could inspire hundreds of other players across the country.

He suggested that Rotary-like organisations should work in rural areas also to promote social welfare.

Among those honoured were Rani, Mukesh, Rajwinder Kaur, Gagandeep Kaur, Simranjit Kaur, Balwinder Kaur and Jagjit Kaur and coach Baldev Singh. Three sisters--Sonia, Pooja and Suman-- were also honoured for excelling in kick boxing.

The Governor also honoured the Kurukshetra district sport officer for his role in laying down an astroturf at the Shahabad Hockey Academy.

The Governor announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh from his discretionary fund for the promotion of sports.

Rewari, October 12
The Ahirwal region comprises 11 assembly segments of Bawal, Rewari, Kosli (Rewari district), Narnaul, Mahendragarh, Ateli, Nangal Chaudhary (Mahendragarh district), Pataudi, Sohna, Gurgaon and Badshahpur (Gurgaon district).

Their most striking feature is that almost all of them are Ahir-dominated constituencies.

Among them, Kosli, Nangal Chaudhary and Badshahpur are newly created segments.

A major chunk of the old Jatusana constituency, which now stands abolished, has been merged with the newly carved Kosli segment of Rewari district.

In the 2005 bassembly elections when a pro-Congress wave was sweeping Haryana and when the party won 67 of the 90 seats in the state, only six seats of Rewari, Kosli, Jatusana (now abolished), Mahendragarh, Pataudi (reserved) and Gurgaon had gone to it with the four remaining seats --Bawal (reserved), Narnaul, Ateli and Sohna-- pocketed by Independents.

Interestingly, the two major opposition parties, the INLD and the BJP-- had then drawn a blank in the entire region.

However, in the present Assembly elections the poll scenario in the region seems to have undergone a radical transformation.

As per reports received from various quarters, while the Congress is facing a tough challenge in almost all 11 segments, candidates of the INLD, BJP and other opposition parties and Independents now appear to be well-entrenched in various constituencies in the region.

If reports were to be believed, while Congress nominees Dharambir Gauba(Gurgaon), Rao Dharampal (Badshahpur) and Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav (Rewari) seemed to be marching towards victory in spite of stiff opposition from certain opponents, Rao Yadvender Singh (Cong) and Jagdish Yadav( Ind) in Kosli as well as Rao Dan Singh (Cong) and Prof. Ram Bilas Sharma (BJP ) in Mahendragarh are reportedly locked in a neck-and-neck contest, with every likelihood of the two seats going either way.

Similarly, while INLD nominees Rao Bahahdur Singh in Nangal Chaudhary, Rameshwar Dayal in Bawal and Ganga Ram in Pataudi were reportedly front-runners, notwithstanding the stout defiance put up by their certain rivals.

In the same vein while HJC candidate Rao Narender Singh appears to have developed an edge over his other rivals in Narnaul, Anita Yadav (Cong), Rao Ajit Singh (INLD), Naresh Yadav (Ind) and Santosh Yadav (BJP) seemed to be in a hot race for supremacy in Ateli. The situation in the Sohna segment too seemed to be no different.

Gurgaon, October 12
An art exhibition, “Beyond the Horizon”, organised from October 7 to 11 came like a cool breeze for residents of the millennium city amidst the heat of aggressive poll campaigning.The creations of 16 artists from different parts of the country were on display during the event, which featured varied forms of fine art.

The artists portrayed aspects and feelings as diverse as our traditional family values and rich cultural heritage; mother nature in all its divine forms; expressions of love, happiness and sorrow; devotion, faith and surrender unto the Almighty; longing for spiritualism and concern for the future generation.

Amna Jafar from Moradabad captures the nuances of love and longing desire for it; whereas Bhim Malhotra from Chandigarh weaves a poetic string around nature.

The paintings by Geetha Menon from Pune focus on still objects and varied human faces. The works of Jaya Pathak from Gurgaon narrate the tale of a woman who goes out to meet her lover, hiding herself from the world.

Engineer-artist Kamal Sharma’s paintings present a distinct flavour of Indian faith and spiritualism. Madan Lal depicts the Indian female form and the rich splendor of nature.

Bright and vibrant colours mark the paintings of Malabika K. Saikia, who is basically from Assam but residing in Gurgaon. Narender Mehta, organiser of the exhibition, has beautifully portrayed Lord Buddha’s postures of meditation and Nirvana, which showcase solace. Rooh Chowdhury from Ludhiana also seems inspired by the life of Lord Buddha, which is clearly reflected in her creations.

Basically from West Bengal but now settled in Delhi, Shrabani Dasgupta’s paintings underline an Indian woman’s devotion towards her family. Delhi-based Tarak Sharma is a visual artist of the various moods of the female face.

Urmi Dutt from Gurgaon shows her skills at painting human emotions and state of mind while Vikas Chaudhary from Charkhi Dadri utilises natural colours to highlight the brightness of a woman’s life.

The paintings of Raj Jain, Ram Pratap Verma and Ramesh Rana, who has mastered the depiction of beauty in the art form of pictures of stones and boulders, were also on display.

Kurukshetra, October 12
Shivang Gaur, a class VIII student of Seth Tek Chand Memorial Public School here, has won laurels by getting a scholarship.

According to a communication from the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), Ministry of Culture, Shivang has been selected for the grant of scholarship for training in visual art-sculpture category in a competition organised by the CCRT.

Under this scheme, he will get Rs 300 per month till the completion of his graduation.

School chairman Mool Chand Gupta has congratulated both Shivang Gaur and his art teacher NC Bhardwaj.

Kaithal, October 12
A new branch of Haryana Gramin Bank was inaugurated by the director of the bank, PL Bhardwaj, here recently. Veteran leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala presided over the function.

Speaking on the occasion, Surjewala exhorted the bank functionaries to reach to the poorest of the poor so that they could benefit from the schemes launched by the banking sector for the benefit of such people.

Bhardwaj said the bank would take steps to popularise schemes for providing education and housing loans and credit cards to farmers.

IS Phogat, chairman of the bank, assured that with the opening of this branch at Kaithal, customers would get the best and expeditious services. RM Singh Kairon, bank manager, was also present on the occasion.

Gurgaon, October 12
For someone like 80-year-old Sarita Devi, electronic voting machines (EVMs) are proving to be a boon. Earlier, many like her would have their paper ballots rejected for small mistakes like wrong folding which left multiple impressions on the ballot.

Sarita is waiting for October 13 when she would have the chance to press the button to cast her vote. “It is much simple than the paper ballot. Many times, I folded the ballot wrongly. The double impression led to the rejection of my vote,” she says. But she is happy that in 2005, she cast her vote by just pressing a button.
In fact, statistics show that ever since the EVMs were pressed into service for Assembly elections in the state, the percentage of rejected votes has drastically came down.

In the first Assembly elections in the state in 1967, as high as 29 per cent of the total votes polled were rejected. However, in the last Assembly elections held in 2005 through the EVMs, the percentage of rejected votes was only 0.05 per cent.

The votes which get cancel now are just of soldiers. If we compare the cancelled votes of 2005 and 1967, we will certainly find a great difference. Only 4,338 votes were cancelled in 2005 in comparison to 9,31,825 votes that had been cancelled in 1967.

After this, the number had been continuously decreasing. It is surprising that after the use of EVMs in 2000, very less number of votes had been cancelled that, too, are the postal votes of soldiers. There were around 1,11,53,183 people out of which 77,97,397 people cast their vote. As many as 15,551 election booths were established at that time. During this, just 0.53 per cent votes were cancelled and they were of soldiers.

During 2005 elections, only 91,52,299 voters had used their votes and 4,338 votes were cancelled and they were the postal votes of soldiers. As many as 12, 315 soldiers had sent their votes by post.

During 1967, there were 43,87,980 voters out of which 31,87,946 had used their rights and 9,31,825 votes were cancelled. As many as 4,741 booths were established during this time. In this election, it was 75 per cent of men and 69 per cent of women who cast their votes for the first time. In the second elections in 1968, there were as many as 45,52,539 voters, out of which 2,66,667 cast their votes. The number of cancelled votes decreased to 64,729 and 4,900 booths were constructed.

In the third elections held in 1972, there were 50,91,082 voters out of which 34,94,794 cast their votes. As many as 92,252 votes were cancelled and 6,189 booths were established.

In 1977, the number of voters increased to 59,38,821 and around 3,82,860 cast their votes. Out of which 47,101were cancelled and 6,428 booths were established.

In 1982, 71,52,282 voters were registered, out of which 49,58,435 cast their vote and 87,091 were cancelled and 7,211 booths were established.

The number of cancelled votes again increased in 1987 where 61,98,644 people out of 87,00,628 cast their vote.

In 1991, the number of cancelled votes reached 22,47,799. It was 6,49,673 people out of 1,11,55,242 who cast their votes. The number slightly decreased to 2,98,974 with 78,68,951 people out of 1,11,55,242 voted.

Fatehabad, October 12
Tough contest between the Congress and the INLD has emerged in the Ratia and Tohana Assembly constituencies of Fatehabad district, while a triangular contest between the Congress, the INLD and a Congress rebel is being witnessed in the Fatehabad constituency as the campaigning has entered its last phase.

In the Ratia (reserve) Assembly seat, the main contest is between Jarnail Singh of the Congress and Gian Chand of the INLD.

Mangat Ram of the HJC, Mahavir Prashad of the BJP, Amarjit Kaur of the BSP and Congress rebel Gurdeep Singh are also in the fray.

The seat went to Gian Chand Odh of the INLD in the 2005 Assembly elections, but it was mainly due to the division of Congress votes between Congress candidate Gurdeep Singh Gill and a Congress rebel, Mangat Ram, who had the covert support of Bhajan Lal.

Though this time too a Congress rebel, Gurdeep Singh, son of former MP Atma Singh Gill, is in the contest, he is unlikely to cut much ice.

The Congress managed a lead of 11,113 votes from here in the parliamentary elections, but it is yet to be seen if the party would be able to repeat that performance this time.

Paramveer Singh of the Congress is facing a stiff challenge from Nishan Singh of the INLD at the Tohana Assembly seat. Sanjay Sharma (BSP), Subhash Barala (BJP) and an independent candidate, Roshan Lal, are also making their presence felt.

Paramveer Singh, a sitting MLA, enjoys a clean image and the Congress was able to get a lead of 8,579 votes in the recent parliamentary polls.

However, this time, both Roshan Lal and Sanjay Sharma are likely to make dents into the vote bank of the Congress. Nishan Singh (INLD) is banking largely on Sikh and Jat votes.

But Barala, too, comes from the Jat community and he will also cut into Nishan Singh’s vote bank.

Fatehabad, where the Congress scored a lead of 10,799 votes in the parliamentary elections, the picture appears quite unclear this time.

Sitting MLA Dura Ram is locked in a triangular contest with Swatantar Bala Chaudhary (INLD) and Pahlad Singh Gillankhera, a Congress rebel.

Ran Singh Beniwal (HJC) may not make it to the main contest, but he is likely to make a dent into the Congress vote bank as former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal has large followings here and he and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi are leaving no stone unturned to unsettle Dura Ram.

Bhisham Pitameh (BJP) is also in the fray, but his presence may not affect the final outcome of the election.

The BSP had fielded Anil Kakkar, but he withdrew from the contest on the final date for withdrawal, forcing the local unit of the BSP to extend its support to Congress rebel Gillankhera.

Narwana (Reserve), although part of Jind district, comes under the Sirsa parliamentary seat.

Once a hot seat having witnessed battles between Om Parkash Chautala and Randeep Singh Surjewala in the last two decades, Narwana is now a little talked about seat, where all political parties have tried greenhorns.

Rampal Lot (Congress), Pirthi Singh (INLD), Bhagwati Prashad (BJP), Ram Bhaj (BSP) and Dharampal Tur (HJC) are in the fray from here.

Chautala represented this seat during his term as Chief Minister from 2000 to 2005, but he lost this seat to Randeep Singh Surjewala of the Congress in 2005.

Narwana provided a lead of 15,054 votes to the INLD in the parliamentary elections. As Chautala is contesting from the neighbouring Uchana Kalan constituency this time, the INLD has been concentrating equally on this seat too. 

Dabwali/Rania (Sirsa),October 12
In Haryana, where sons of leading politicians enjoy a star status among masses, Deepender Hooda, son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has also emerged as a star campaigner for the Congress.Deepender Hooda campaigned for KV Singh, a former OSD to CM at Dabwali recently.Providing impetus to KV Singh’s poll, the Rohtak MP organised road show in over a 12 villages, including INLD citadel, Chautala,.

KV Singh is facing Ajay Singh Chautala of the INLD, among others.

Terming KV Singh as Hooda’s trusted lieutenant, Deepender asked people to choose between him, who, he claimed brought several development projects to Dabwali during the last four and a half years and those, who, he alleged, ruined the state during their tenure by their undemocratic and tyrannical style of functioning and greed for money.

“On the one hand, you had people who spread fear and corruption and exploited people, on the other, you have the government led by Hooda that has worked for the betterment of all,” he maintained.

He said education, healthcare, power and water were on the top of priority for the Hooda government and the government would take this agenda ahead after coming to power.

Speaking in the meetings, KV Singh promised people of more jobs for Dabwali.

INLD candidate Ajay Singh Chautala, however, said that people of Dabwali were not going to be taken in by the “false” assurances of Hooda again.

“They took away your votes in the parliamentary elections by promising uninterrupted power supply, but sold your share of power to Delhi,” alleged Ajay Singh.

Accusing the Chief Minister of discriminating with Sirsa district, he alleged that the Hooda government had been giving all government jobs in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts alone.

Meanwhile, Ghasi Ram Nain, president of the state Bhartiya Kisan Union, campaigned for Congress nominee Ranjit Singh in the Rania assembly seat recently.

“Bullets were pumped into the bodies of agitating farmers when the Chautalas were at the helm while Bhupinder Singh Hooda not only provided them relief by loans and electricity bills waiver, but also gave them the best support price for their produce,” the BKU leader claimed.

Terming Ranjit Singh as a trusted person of Hooda, Ghasi Ram Nain called upon the people to vote for him.

Gharunda, October 12
“Criminals have no place in society and they must be excluded from the political process for the growth of our democratic polity and breaking the nexus between politicians and criminals,” says Rohtak MP Deepender Singh.

“Legislation should be passed in Parliament to stop people with criminal background from contesting elections. The role of money and muscle power should also be effectively checked,” he told The Tribune in an interview.

Deepender, son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who won the recent Lok Sabha lections by record margin of about 4.5 lakh votes is a strong votary of ethics in politics and wants the youth to come forward and change the image of politicians.

“Most of the problems faced by us are because of the fact that political atmosphere is vitiated and criminals and corrupt people have gained strength to operate the levers of power and this process must be reversed,” he added.

Deepender, currently campaigning in different parts of the state for Congress candidates, is perhaps the only leader who is not pressing for votes but urging the electorate to “compare the performance of the Congress government with that of previous INLD-BJP government and use your discretion”.

He said he did not believe in making tall promises like the INLD, luring people to vote once for the party and enjoy the fruits for four generations. “I only tell people that I will work with honesty, good intentions and dedication and leave it to the people to believe me or not,” he said, adding that people did believe in his words and had demonstrated this in the Lok Sabha poll. Deepender is candid in telling the achievements of the government and says people should see the development that has taken place at the ground level and make their own judgment while at the same time, compare it with the previous government to draw a parallel.

His road shows in the rural Haryana are a big hit with elderly thronging the roads to bless him and younger people vying to meet and shake hands with him.

Commenting on the main demand of people of Karnal to set up Kalpana Chawala medical college, Deepender said it was for Union government to decide as every state had been demanding an AIIMS-like institute but he and Local MP Arvind Sharma had talked to the Prime Minister about the college. However, he said one thing was clear that if any government could get an AIIMS-like institute for Karnal, it could be none other than the Congress.

Sonepat, October 12
Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer Ajit Joshi has directed all returning officers of the six Assembly constituencies to ensure video and digital cameras, besides micro-observers, at the hypersensitive, sensitive and other polling booths as per requirement.

Video cameras will be installed at 99 building being used for hypersensitive polling booths and digital cameras at 111 buildings earmarked for sensitive polling booths. Micro-observers will be deputed at the general polling booths in the remaining 366 buildings.

According to Mr Joshi, polling booths in Gannaur constituencies will be covered by 16 video cameras, 70 digital cameras and 34 micro-observers.

The Rai constituency will be covered by by 17 video cameras and 75 micro-observers while the Kharkhoda constituency will have 14 video cameras and 73 micro-observers.

Similarly, besides seven video cameras and 41 digital cameras, only two booths will be covered by micro-observers in the Sonepat constituency.

Polling booths in the Gohana constituency will be managed by 22 video cameras and 90 micro-observers ; whereas the Baroda constituency will have 23 video cameras and 92 micro-observers at.

The list of polling booths where such facilities will be provided has already been provided to the returning officers.

Ratia (Fatehabad), October 12
Kunal Bhadoo, convener of the NGO, Navyug Nirman, and son-in-law of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, called upon children and parents to wake up to problems like environmental degradation and female foeticide.

Bhadoo was addressing students of the local Akal Academy, a CBSE affiliated school, during a seminar on “Environment Protection And Female Foeticide”.

Virender Siwach, a local surgeon, Indu Sharma, principal of the academy, and several students of the school expressed their views on the occasion.

Bhadoo said it was ironical that we gave much thought on vehicle we want to purchase, clothes we want to wear and other things of material importance, but we never gave a minute to think about the air we breathe in.

He said it was a matter of concern that forests were being razed to accommodate the rising population. “Green forests are disappearing to make way for concrete jungles and time is not far when we will find a few trees around us,” he said, adding that the impact of unchecked cutting of trees was already being witnessed.

He said failure of rains during the monsoon months and then floods due to heavy rains in October was one of the results of the depleting forests.

Bhadoo also called upon people to take a pledge for not indulging in sex determination and female foeticide in the future. Virender said gender imbalance was a big problem in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and it was high time that people woke up to the problem.

He said equipments like ultrasound were meant for the diagnosis of diseases, but some unscrupulous elements started misusing this technology for the determination of sex of unborn child. Indu said people need to understand the phenomenon of global warming and environmental changes, which were all due to the deforestation.

“We, at the academy, do not discriminate between boys and girls and even the uniform prescribed for them is identical,” she added.

Simi Agarwal and Kirandeep Kaur, two students of the school, also expressed their views on the problems of environment and female foeticide.